Exam season - from the beginning...

It's exam season in Scotland. All the way from national exams taken by school students, up to university variety. The same advice helpfully provided by Blackwell's, the university bookseller in Edinburgh, holds good for all of them.

Essential revision material - past papers from previous diets. SQA = Scottish Qualifications Authority: the exam body in Scotland which covers all national qualifications except university degrees and some professional qualifications. This week my daughter sits Intermediate 2 French. It would be much appreciated if French readers of this blog could send French thoughts to Edinburgh.

Lamport and Draughton via Brampton Valley Way

10 of us - Barry, Barrie and Vera, Norma, Sue, Steph, Gordon, Phil, Jill and me. 5.3 miles. Mostly fine with a couple of brief showers.

A bucolic scene

We started from Lamport High Street, and turned right along the Harborough Road which we followed for a short distance before turning left and following the path downhill to the Brampton Valley Way.







We turned right along this pleasant path and crossed over the A508, then continued for about a mile and a half.















We turned off to the right, near a disused footbridge.

We crossed a field, hugging the edges, to the road between Maidwell and Draughton. We turned right and along the road to Draughton. Snack stop was outside Draughton church.

A few hundred yards further along, outside the village a footpath led to the right. We walked along the edge of a recently harvested field gently uphill to a spot marked as a tumulus - some vegetation and a round pond. This was when another shower hit us.









We made our way down to a gap in the hedge to the road,

and crossed over to pass Shortwood house and a couple of cottages on the left. There's a large area where they keep young game birds, possibly partridges, in long runs. At the top of a short hill we turned left along a sheltered path, then across further fields. It's a flat walk following the path and a very short distance after a left turn along the road we arrived in Lamport. Another left turn, and we were back at our starting point.

Tosspot of the week

I had someone else in mind for this week's award, but they'll have to wait until next week now (and I doubt thatparticular controversy is going away any time soon). The truth is, there was a far more worth recipient on Bermuda Street, Broadbeach Waters last Friday evening. Some old guy copped a red light, but decided that simply waiting in line for it to change was too boring, and thought his time would be better spent getting out of his car and trying to pick a fight with the guy in the car behind him. Meanwhile, the light turned to green while this idiot was still on his feet demonstrating his limited vocabulary (which apparently contains no words longer than four letters).

I have to ask, what was this guy trying to achieve? There really wasn't much point asking him, as there's no way someone of his limited IQ was ever going to figure it out. I'll admit that being bored at Gold Coast traffic lights is a very real possibility, as they are second only to Brisbane as the slowest in the seven countries I have visited so far, but there was really no possible benefit to what this idiot was trying to do. I suppose he may be trying to make his mother wish she could go back in time and declare a Jihad on her unborn foetus with acoat hanger, but I suspect she already feels that way (and I would too).

I can only assume this idiot was trying to keep me entertained at the end of a long working week. If that was his intention, he certainly succeeded. I was continually laughing at him for the remainder of the ride home, and then told my neighbour about it, and he was laughing too. In exchange for all those laughs, my humble offering is a Tosspot of the Week award.

Spring chickens

It doesn't really take much to have a chicken fan club.

Before you know it they'll be eating out of your hand.

Chicken dance lines involve a bit more training.
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Why do you think they call it henbit?

A mouse does not make a good pen.

Once more, from the top

"Sure, they're both European invaders, but the flowers taste really good to chickens. And the square stems are pretty cool too."
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Submitted to the Friday Ark.

Municipal planting Edinburgh

It struck me recently on my walk to work that the municipal planting goes through several phases on the 2 mile route from suburbs to the centre. Near the start, I pass what used to be a nondescript triangle of ground covered by creeping ivy. Recently this was cleared, and an amazingly pollinator-friendly collection of plants appeared. I don't know if it is a council site, or if local residents have taken it in hand, but the planting includes very un-municipal Rudbeckia, Tiarella, Cranesbill Geranium, Astrantia, Helleborus, Verbena Bonariensis, Japanese Anemone...





A little further towards town, this traffic island is planted with soft grasses, and Sedum, plus something I can't identify from a distance.





Very nearby, however, the invasion of the bedding Geranium begins.





And by Princes Street Gardens, the bedding could be straight from the 1960s.





Up on the Mound, which is the showpiece of Edinburgh's municipal bedding, there is a rather strange collection of plants this year, but it is an improvement on classic 1960s.

Sammie's Fifth Birthday!

Avalon here! It has been awhile - our peeps keep finding things other than our blog to attend to - imagine!!! And we have so many of our friends we need to visit - we'll be coming on over! I just wanted to woof that a couple of days ago, it was Sammie's birthday! She is now FIVE years old, so we needed to so some of her favorite things: go to the beach, eat, have a swim and... EAT!!!
Shhhhhhhhhhh... don't tell Sammie... we're going on a road trip - toooooooooooo Doran Beach all the way up in Bodega Bay!

You can see how much fun we had there - what a cool beach, and also a great harbor! There is a very cool Fish 'n Chips place - no pix - but Dad (with a stern gaze from Mom) fed us some of his...mnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn! Then...
... Sierra invited us over to pawty pawty pawty at her house, which was awesome! Sierra is a totally super hostess and we had a ball!
Sierra has this big red ball that both Sammie and I like - never mind poor Sierra, whose ball it was! Sammie and I both locked onto it and never moved for like ten or eleven minutes. Heheh! Then....
... what I KNEW was coming and had been waiting for DAH Dahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! We woofed Happy Birthday to Sammie in our best Wowowowos...
...AND DUG IN!!! Yumzers, Mama! What a nommy cake - you can see how happily Sammie ate this cake up!
Me and Sierra really got it goin' here - oh it was so good! It was peanut butter cake with yoghurt chip frosting - there was some cinnamon in the peanut butter part and we couldn't get enough! Sammie continued to love it!
Sierra and I retired to the dual pink pools to rest our bellies...
... while Sammie longingly stared at the leftover cake, hoping. We finally had to go home...
...where Sammie got to open her pressies - yay! Here's one of Sam's faves - Jerky Sticks that I (oops - Sammie) truly loves - they are from Sierra! Thank you pal!!!
Next, Sammie unwrapped a ginormous snake that I immediately had to test, to ensure that it wasn't toxic or anything! She also got a cool animal with a furry tail that had an empty water bottle inside - I love crinkly - oops - Sammie loves crinkly! And Sammie got her own big red ball, which we've been arguing over (oops - playing with) ever since! Happy Birthday Sammie! And thanks so much Sierra, for hosting such a wonderfully fun pawty!!! We wish you all a very safe and Happy Fourth of July!

My Shangri-la Beneath the Summer Moon

I talked to Morgan on Sunday night, after the inaugural stage.
After the first stage of Transrockies on Sunday they were in 16th place. After yesterday's stage two, Dos Machos Sasquatchos had slipped down to 22nd - out of 71 two person teams, in their age group.
It seems though, at least according to Morgan, that the first two days would probably be the hardest. Monday's stage had the most amount of climbing out of all the stages. And he knew that the climbs would be the hardest for him.

He said they raced through snow, rain, thunder, freezing temps, sun, hike a bike and singletrack.
Morgan's like a diesel engine. He tends to not jump at the gun, but winds his way up and along the way steadily making good progress and gradually passes all the engines flittering out - to finish pretty strong. He's strong, steady and solid.

Me, I'm an old volkswagon. More like a karmin ghia. Trying to pretend I'm cool, trying to start out fast, puttin' along and barely hanging on, but happy to be all red and shiny.
And then Matthias, well, Matthias is strong all around. Morgan mentioned that during the first stage Matthias was holding back and having to wait a little on the climbs. But things were going well for them
Today's stage looks like it'll give them a little reprieve - and less climbing. So maybe things will settle out a little bit and they'll slowly begin their ramp up.
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Here, on the west coast, shortly back from LA and the bum rush of the cat lady...
Sam fractured his ankle on Friday about an hour after I dropped him and his buddies off at camp. Some kid slide tackled him during a pickup soccer game at camp. It's hard to tell with Sam when things are really wrong. Because un like both Lulu and I, he never complains about anything. He's a lot like Morgan.

But sure enough, after 5 hours in the ER on Saturday and still not a peep of complaint from him, we had our result.
So he's recuperating at camp grandma's for the week.
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And me, well, I'm riding my bike and...

Today's donut Tuesday here at work. Every Tuesday, Dale the doorman, brings a bunch of boxes of donuts and spreads them out for all to enjoy.

I don't eat donuts. I know my limits. Donuts are like crack to me. If I even have a tiny bite of one it's all over and then the whole day is lost. It usually starts with me cutting a small corner of and having one little bite, and then while I'm standing there eating the corner I'll eat the rest. And then I'll eat another one and tell myself I'll just run/ride at lunch and it'll be ok.
This is the start of the rise up to peak, when I rationalize that if I eat only 1 or 2 more then I can have a banana and almonds in a few hours, still before lunch and still feel ok to work out.
Because right then, I feel great. And everything is beautiful.
And then, I'm spinning in circles with the golf club and hitting golf balls down the hallway into the sales area and kicking the exercise ball at people I don't necessarily like as they walk by the studio. And then I'm riding my bike through the sales floor as fast as I can trying not to hit the cubicle partition walls.

And then in another half hour, I'm sitting at my desk complaining with a headache and feeling sick and telling the photographer to shut up. All this because of donuts.
But that was at my old job.

Nowadays, I just don't eat donuts. I just turn and walk away.